The Book of Technology

S"Wii"t

2006-09-10T00:11:00.000-06:00

The Nintendo Wii will no doubt be the beginning of a revolution in gaming. With it's unique wireless and motion sensing remote, gamers will feel like they are inside the game. No more of this reflex testing button pressing to swing a golf club; Wii allows you to actually swing the bat. The Wii remote is your sword, your bat, your paintbrush, your hammer, your bow and arrow, and your steering wheel. The Nunchuck controller add on will also give you analog control for more control. I can only imagine that your arm will get tired very quickly, but couldn't we all use a little excersise?

I'm certain that it's going to be a mind blowing experience for all those hardcore gamers out there who want to get more into their games. I'm just not very certain about the others. It's quoted on the Nintendo Wii site that the Wii will be inviting to all players of any age or skill level. I just don't see my grandma and I getting into a round of warioware: smooth moves. Maybe that's just me being critical. However, I can totally see me and my friends getting really into it. I've also noticed, though that the Wii site has some pictures of what a multiplayer battle would look like and they all seem like they're having a blast. The thing is though, me and my friends barely have enough space playing my Xbox 360. I'm worried I whack one of them in the back of the head in an intense round of tenis.

Nintendo Wii's universal consol capabilities will allow you to not only play gamecube games, but will also give you downloadable acces to classic titles from N64, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Super Nintendo. You'll also be able to download selected titles from Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx. Wii will be able to connect wirelessly to the to the internet (even when the power is off) or to your Nintendo DS. Sadly, I doubt the 512 mb of internal flash memory is going to get me very far.

The release titles for Wii promise to be quite exciting with games like Metroid 3, Zelda, Super Mario Galaxy's, and my personal favorite: Call of Duty 3 (although it'll be interesting to see how that compares to the xbox 360 version). I was hoping for Warioware: Smooth Moves to be a launch title, but I guess I'll have to wait.

My overall verdict: promises to be a load of fun with the motion sensing (for the most part, anyway), and it's going to be awesome having access to Super Mario Bros. 3 for NES. Probably isn't going to be the greatest multiplayer experience, but will definately be a sweet single player experience. Would be nice to have HD capabilities, but for low price, I can see why they don't have it.

Nintendo Wii is certainly going to be on my christmas list.

Coming Zune

2006-09-10T00:03:00.000-06:00

For the past 5 years, the digital audio player market has been dominated by the Apple iPod. The iPod's market share has hung around 70% for the last few years. This holiday season a new player will be entering the market, and they're playing for keeps. Probably Apple's biggest rival, Microsoft is releasing a new player called the Zune. The player will feature a 30 GB hard drive, a 3.75 inch screen (bigger than the iPod) and wi-fi. The wi-fi will be used to share your music between zunes and for the live anywhere service. You will be able to receive messages from your Xbox Live friends on the fly. The Zune also supports FM and internet radio. It is expected to be cheaper than the 5th G iPod. One of the problems I see with the zune is its battery life. If you're running the giant screen, wi-fi and FM radio, you'll probably get about 1/2 an hour of battery life. Another problem is that the Zune will not be able to play videos when it ships. You can't bring down the iPod VIDEO without having a video function, no matter how much social networking/xbox live magic you have.

Some people say that the Zune will be the iPod killer. But then again, those people said the same thing about the PSP.

It's Showtime...

2006-09-09T23:34:00.000-06:00

As many of you already know, Apple will be hosting a special event in San Fransisco on Tuesday. The invitations, pictured on the right, feature the words "it's showtime" being lit up by spotlights. I think this is going to be a very interesting event. To me, Showtime means something about movies. What everybody thinks will probably be announced is the sale of full length movies in the iTunes Music Store. I think they will also change the name of the store to iTunes Media Store.

These movies will for sure come from Disney, which Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs pretty much owns. Earlier this summer, Lionsgate films announced they had reached a deal with Apple to sell their movies online. So at least two studios will most likely have films posted on day one. If movies gain steam like TV shows did, there will probably be a lot more studios on board next year.

There are two factors that Apple has to consider when selling movies, quality and price. Most of the rumors say that the price for all movies will be 14.99. Until Apple can push the price down to under 10 bucks, they won't sell too many movies. You can go out and buy a DVD for 5 bucks more and get special features and not as much DRM. You also have to consider what quality you're getting out of these movies. The new 24" iMac Apple just released is capable of playing 1080p video. The folks that buy this computer aren't going to use it to watch crappy iPod formatted videos on. That's just silly. Maybe Apple can provide to videos wrapped in one package. A small format for you to carry on the go, and a large format for watching on your Plasma TV.

Another rumor flying around the web is the release of an iPod with a bigger and possibly touch sensitive screen meant for playing movies. I personally don't think such a product will arrive until closer to Christmas. I think that a new iPod nano is in the mix. I'm guessing it will use the new 8GB flash drives, and have some sort of scratch resistant coating. I hope it also has a slightly larger screen, because I can barely read song names on the current iPod nano's.

Let's just hope that it's not a disappointment, like a new version of Aperture, or a new iPod Hi-Fi. Please bring us one more thing Steve...

The Little Guy is Back

2006-09-09T23:26:00.000-06:00

Apple recently introduced the new Mac mini featuring Intel Core Duo processors. These twin powered chips not only give the Mac mini up to 5x the horse power of its previous model, but it can actually achieve these higher levels of performance while consuming less power. Also squeezed into the tiny the computer is an Intel GMA950 integrated graphics chip with 64MB shared memory. Alongside is a slot loading combo drive so you can pop in a DVD to watch in Front Row or connect your iPod or digital camera into the back via USB or firewire.There's even room for Airport Extreme wireless networking and internal bluetooth. Yes, the Mac mini is still everything you love about a Mac in a neat, little, 2.5 inch tall, 6.5 inch square package. Just remember to BYODKM (Bring your own display, keyboard and mouse.)

The Apple iPhone? iTalk? iChat Mobile?

2006-08-23T11:08:00.000-06:00

In the last year or so, people have been speculating that Apple would release some sort of mobile communications device, or iPhone. Some websites have gone as far to confirm these rumors, stating that the release of the iPhone would for sure happen. Yet again and again, these people are wrong. The latest rumor states that Apple will release a phone late in September at a photo expo. It doesn't make sense to release a phone at a photo show.

A phone released by Apple would be very cool indeed. It would be the most beautiful phone on the market, and integrate with your mac perfectly. It would be as easy to use as an iPod, yet have all kinds of special extra features. It would probably also integrate with iChat, letting you video chat on the fly. It would also have the first cell phone camera to take crisp and clear images.

I can already see how they would showoff such a device. It would be the perfect "One More Thing" event. After releasing a Mac mini, iMac and updated MacBooks/ MBPs, Steve would thank the audience for joining him. The lights would darken the stage, and light up the seats. Music would start to play as people left the building. But suddenly...

A loud ringtone would blast out over all the stands. Then you would hear Steve's voice: "Oh, That's Mine." Steve would pull the iPhone out of his pocket and answer the call. Phil Schiller's voice would come up. "Steve, you forgot to showoff the iTalk (or iPhone or whatever). Everyone in the area would hear this and immediately run back to their seats.

But when you really look at it, there's no point in releasing an iPhone. To significantly beat other experienced phone companies in technology, Apple would have to charge $600 a pop. And what can Apple really offer that other cell phones can't. Maybe iChat integration, but that doesn't put them very high compared to other companies. And Apple still has problems with their notebooks, A product they have been making for more than a decade. Imagine how many problems the first Apple cell phone would have. I don't think they want to enter that fiasco. And also, waht would they do about phone contracts. They wouldn't let Verizon or T Mobile just take it over. If that happended, the service provider would make all the profit, and not them.

I can't see the Apple iPhone happening soon. At least not for another year or so. I think Apple should focus on getting people to buy their computers, so more people will consider buying other Apple products in the future.

Leopard: iChat

2006-08-21T21:35:00.000-06:00

One of the other interesting features in Leopard is a revamped iChat. With video backdrops in the new iChat, you can create the illusion of being somewhere else. iChat creates a green screen like effect with any media from iMovie, iPhoto, or the finder. In addition to this cool feature, Leopard also integrates photobooth effects into iChat. These features, while being good for a laugh or two, don't add much functionality to iChat. It doesn't make communicating with friends and family any easier. One feature that is pretty neat is tabbed iChat windows. It can be very hard to sort out who you are talking to when you have over 10 conversations open. Exposé doesn't help, because all the windows look the same. Having all of your conversations in one window will be alot more.... handier.

iChat theater is one of the features I will probably use. I chat theater lets you show a video, slideshow or keynote presentation within iChat while you give commentary about it. This is really great for communicating with my sister, for she is currently studying in Italy. Instead of having wait until she comes back so she can show me her photos on her powerbook, I can look at them in iChat, complete with a full explanation.

Screen sharing is one of the other features in the new iChat. This let's you take control of one of your contacts' computers remotely. I can see this being very usefull for helping my mom and dad with computer problems. Instead of having to go visit them to troubleshoot problems, I can just solve them myself from anywhere in the world.

One problem I see with screen sharing is the possibility of being hacked. If a stranger was able to gain control of your computer without your consent, they could cause many problems, like stealing your personal information. I'm sure people at Apple have already thought of this, so I'm not too worried.

(pictured is a slideshow in iChat theatre)

Podcasts: The Internet Radio Revolution

2006-08-19T11:05:00.000-06:00

I discovered a new passion on the interweb recently. It's called podcasting. Podcasting involves recording audio and publishing it in a way that can be automatically downloaded by people's computers all over the world. People who download these shows can listen to them on their computer, or more conveniently, on a portable music player. The thing that amazes me is the large audience podcasts attract. Podcasts span almost all topics, from vacationing to learning a language. Of course, the shows that appeal to me the most are about technology. I just leave iTunes on over night to automatically catch any podcasts that may be recorded, stick my iPod in its dock to transfer the podcasts and I'm ready to go. One of the things that appeal to me is the ability to listen to podcasts whenever you want to. Or if you're halfway through a podcast when you arrive at work, just pause and keep listening on the way home. The schedules at radio stations don't have to influence your listening habits. As a matter of fact, many radio stations post versions of their popular shows as a podcast, so you don't have to miss them when you're busy.

Some of the podasts I recommend are This Week in Tech (twit.tv), The MacCast (maccast.com), CrankyGeeks (crankygeeks.com) and for Xbox fans, Major Nelson (majornelson.com).

Leopard: Spaces

2006-08-18T20:59:00.000-06:00

This is the first of a few posts sharing my opinions about the features of Leopard that were shown off at this year's World Wide Developer's Conference. First up is spaces.

Spaces is a feature in Leopard that let's you create multiple desktops to better organize you open applications and windows.

As the Apple promotional video above explains, you can either tab through you spaces, or just click on the Application in the dock that you want to switch to (kind of like Ubuntu...). I think this will really change the way some people work. It replaces the need of having a massive laptop screen, and makes the MacBook's 13 inch screen much more attractive for multitasking. I guess for some people this will make their work easier, but for me, it doesn't sound too attractive. I can accomplish quick switching between applications with a second screen and exposé. It have the middle button of my logitech mouse mapped as exposé(all windows). Now when I switch to windows pcs, I find myself frantically clicking the middle mouse button attempting to switch windows.